the Way of the Turtle

So Much For Borders Books & Music...
Thursday, July 21, 2011

Well, the writing was on the wall and now the fat lady is getting ready to sing... back at the start of 2011 Borders filed for bankruptcy and closed about 1/3 of their stores in hopes of reorganizing and finding financing to move forward. This week it's become clear that all those efforts have failed and they're starting the process of liquidating their remaining stores and stock. As a Rewards member I received an e-mail from the company CEO explaining that the sales start tomorrow; sounds like all the stores will be closed by the end of September.

I can't say I'm surprised... it's been fairly obvious that Borders continued to be in a lot of trouble, from all the in-store efforts to rearrange things to disguise a distinct decrease in stock levels to the hefty discount coupons I've been receiving. Truth be told, I've found my visits to Barnes & Noble to be much more productive than those to Borders - B&N just plain has a much larger selection these days, including new titles that Borders wasn't getting due to some publishers' unwillingness to ship books to a business that already owes them a boatload of money. So why do I even care?

Partially due to nostalgia... I've spent a lot of fun hours in various Borders stores buying books and music since they first opened around here back in the early 1990's. I miss the Borders of old, with great selections of the varieties of books that I enjoy (at that time, better than Barnes & Noble) and even music I enjoy (not many brick-and-mortar stores carry celtic music... Borders used to have a fantastic selection.)

Partially because I love books and this is another blow to the publishers... there are going to be huge repercussions to their losing a sizeable chunk of shelf space. Publishers downsizing means fewer books and much tougher times for new authors, some of whom might be capable of writing amazing work that I'd really enjoy... if they get the chance.

And partially due to the loss of venues for the book-shopping experience... it's more than just a matter of going somewhere and buying a book I want (after all, I can use Amazon for that from the comfort of home or work!) I have no idea how many times I've shopped at Borders or B&N and ended up stumbling across a book I'd never heard of - that's much more difficult to do on-line. That's why I'm sure I'll be shopping at B&N more often in the future (heck, I'll probably even pay for one of their member cards now, since I started paying for the one at Borders.) Though I have to wonder... how much longer do they have, in a society that seems to place less and less value on actual reading (as opposed to browsing on the internet.)

Then again, perhaps ten years from now I'll have embraced the whole e-books thing and will wonder why I ever put some much time and money into all those silly paper books...

Regardless, I'm going to miss shopping at Borders.

JMH